Guillermo Martinez: Undocumented children reaching crisis level

June 26, 2014|Guillermo Martinez, El Sentinel, Columnist

The flood of Central American undocumented children crossing into the United States has been building slowly over the years. Now it has become a full-blown crisis that will cost the U.S. government billions of dollars and take years to control.

Numbers are hard to come by. The most optimistic say an estimated 60,000 will pour into the United States this year, up from 6,000 in 2011 and will likely double by 2015. Others say more than 47,000 have crossed over the border already this year and will easily surpass 90,000 by years end.

The Obama administration already has asked Congress for $2 billion to tackle this problem this year. It will take much more than that in the years to come.

The center for American Progress, an independent nonpartisan educational institute, has released a fact sheet of the five most salient facts about this issue:

Violence is causing these children to flee their homes;

Smugglers and human traffickers prey on these children, who are increasingly younger and female;

This is a regional crisis encompassing Honduras, El Salvador, Guatamela and Nicaragua;

Despite rumors to the contrary, unaccomplanied minors coming to the United States can be deported;

Some in Congress are playing politics with a humanitarian issue.

One fact is not highlighted. It will take years and cost the government billions of dollars to process these children in an attempt to deport them back to their home countries. Many, if not most of them, will never go back. The process to determine if an individual has any right to remain in this country as a refugee takes years. In the meantime, these children are here and will remain here.

Gangs in these countries force these children to choose between joining their criminal enterprise or death. Instead, the children choose to flee. Many of them hope to be reunited with their families already in the United States. Others do so because they believe — erroneously — that children entering the United States will be allowed to stay and cannot be deported.

The deportation process — particularly for children who claim refugee status under international law — can take years. In the end, however, these children can be deported unless they can prove they have legitimate grounds of persecution if returned home.

The most recent arrivals are younger in age and many more are female. They are brought across Mexico and into the United States by smugglers and human traffickers who prey on their young victims. Many of the girls are raped during the journey. Their relatives pay $8,000 to $10,000 for the journey.

While there is no doubt that this is a humanitarian crisis, it is also something that the United States cannot continue to tolerate. A local immigration attorney familiar with the issues says the solution is not to give more money to the Central American governments so they can try and stem the tides at home.

"This will not work. That is like playing blackmail. It is throwing money at the problem," the attorney said. "What the United States should do is precisely the opposite. They should tell the Central American government that American aide would be cut off unless they control this mass migration."

He added the U.S.-Mexico border should be militarized and these people should not be allowed to enter the country. Money should be spent persecuting and bringing to justice human traffickers.

None of what he says is easy to accomplish. Passage of a real immigration reform bill that would allow undocumented migrants already in the country eventually to claim their children would be a step in the right direction. It would open a legal channel for these people to come to this country. Chances of that happening this year are slim.

"This is a humanitarian crisis and it requires a humanitarian response," Senate Appropriatiions Committee Chairwoman Barbara Mikulski told Reuters. But, Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama replied, "The need is there, you know the humanitarian aspect of it, but we are challenged on the money."

There are no easy solutions, either for Congress or the White House. But the government has to find a way to solve the problem before the Untied States loses total control of its southern border.

Guillermo I. Martinez resides in South Florida. His e-mail is Guimar1223@gmail.com, and his Twitter is @g_martinez123.